Author Notes: Celery roasted with a little fennel and garlic and then pureed with chicken broth and potatoes makes for a nice starter or light lunch. A touch of half and half or cream with a spritz of lemon finishes it off. - inpatskitchen

Food52 Review: WHO: Inpatskitchen is a prolific FOOD52er and -- as a retired teacher, paralegal, and seafood retailer -- a bit of a cook of all trades, too.
WHAT: A simple and elegant twist on cream of celery soup.
HOW: By roasting the celery and fennel, and boiling the potatoes in broth, inpatskitchen builds a lovely foundation of flavors. And of course, cream to finish is always a great idea.
WHY WE LOVE IT: This soup truly elevates humble, plain vegetables that are usually relegated to a garnish plate or side dish to a higher plane of existence. Given proper attention, lo and behold, they shine. - The Editors

Makes almost 2 quarts

8 large celery stalks cut into 2 inch pieces

1/2 bulb fresh fennel cut into 2 inch chunks

2 large whole garlic cloves

3tablespoons olive oil

1teaspoon salt

1/2teaspoon black pepper

3 medium redskin potatoes, peeled and cut into a 1 1/2 inch dice

6cups chicken broth

1/2cup light cream or half and half

2teaspoons fresh lemon juice

Salt and pepper for re seasoning if needed

Celery leaves and fennel fronds for a little garnish

Place the cut celery, fennel and cloves of garlic in a 9x13 inch roasting pan. Add the salt, pepper and olive oil and toss to thoroughly coat everything. Roast in a 350F oven for 40 to 45 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the edges of the vegetables just begin to brown.

While the vegetables are cooking, cook the potatoes in the chicken broth until tender..about 10 to 12 minutes. Set the pan aside to cool a bit.

When the vegetables have finished roasting add them to the potatoes and broth. Let everything cool a bit.

In a blender puree the soup in batches. If you have a "liquify" setting on your blender use that. If you like you can strain the soup through a mesh strainer. Once pureed. return the soup to the pot and bring up to the boil. Stir in the cream/half and half and the lemon juice. Re season if needed and garnish each bowl with celery leaves and fennel fronds if you like.

NOTE: For a little more pronounced celery flavor add a pinch or two of celery seed or salt when re seasoning.

I love the flavor of this (and I skipped the cream) but I do not care for the texture. I used only celery hearts, so they weren't hardly stringy at all, but the pureed soup is unpleasantly stringy. Also, the waxy red potatos give the soup a sticky, gloppy texture that I don't care for at all. This is a nice interpretation of vichyssoise, and I love the fennel, but I won't make it again.

This recipe can be the base for a number of additions or substitutions for whatever you have in the house, or for other personal preferences. I find, for a richer celery flavor, instead of fennel, or in addition to it, to substitute a celery root in this recipe. Another possibility is adding a rutabaga. I also add chopped celery leaves to the broth in addition to the potatoes. A quicky thickener used by Jacques Pepin is to use instant potatoes for a thickener -- I used Idahoan Original in this recipe. And, for the creamy taste, I substitute a scant half cup of almond milk with 1 1/2 tablespoons of whipped cream cheese in the puree. For a finish, try a dollop of sour cream to top it off.

I just made this soup; oh so yummy! I did skip the cream for allergy reasons and found that the potato gave it a creamy texture that was just right. I am sure the cream would have made it delectible but it is good to know it is wonderful without for those of us who cannot use cream. Also I used vegetable base, because I had some, to make it vegan safe!

Subbed an item out of necessity - a tbsp of dill for fennell. Added half a red onion (sauteed) because it was in the house and a couple extra stalks because I really had too much in the house! Soup turned out great and I'll definitely recommend it. :)

This soup is AMAZING. Every since I first had cream of celery root soup in Stowe, VT (one of those transformative food moments I'll remember forever) I've been trying to recreate it. Wrestling with gnarly celeriac is never my favorite, but worse, I could never get the intense celery flavor and velvety texture I craved. Turns out, I was coming at it the wrong way entirely. One bite of this soup and I was back in the ski cabin with the snow outside, so happy to be alive.

I'm trying to buy more of the vegetables I used to pass and bought fresh fennel for the first time of my life for this recipe. And I don't regret it. My 6 yo wasn't too fond of it but my 2 yo loved it and so did I!

I had tons of leftover celery from Thanksgiving. Raw celery is not my jam - it's so plain - but I was committed not to letting it go to waste when I found this soup. I subbed the cream/H&H for 2T butter and omitted the fennel since I didn't have any on hand. Oh...then I added some crumbled bacon to finish things off :) This was a great light, yet warming, dinner soup. Thanks for the recipe!

In a recent "Features" article, AntoniaJames wrote about homemade nut milks and suggested almond or cashew milk. Read the article here:http://food52.com/blog...I haven't tried it yet but AJ is a fantastic cook and knows what she's talking about. Good luck and let me know how it turns out!

This looks fantastic. And I have a whole bunch of celery in need of some loving in my fridge. However, fennel is always hard to get (and oh so expensive) where I live. What do you think would be a good substitute? Thanks

Finally made this for dinner. Like you suggested, I added some fennel seeds before I roasted the celery. And I made a few other changes. I only had 2 smallish potatoes and a couple of sweet potatoes, so I just threw them all in. I also didn't have any cream so I just used milk. A pinch of sugar to round up the flavours and a sprinkle of chilli flakes at the end and guess what? It was so so good! Best soup I've had in ages. Thank you!

Just found this recipe and I'm looking forward to cooking it up. As a little girl I used to love Campbell's Cream of Celery soup. I wouldn't go for it now but this will be a nice recreation. Can't wait to savor!